216 Replies - 11657 Views - Last Post: 16 December 2011 - 10:05 AM

Occupy Wall Street

Last time I posted a news story here I got trolled for not having enough content so I'll try to make this post as thorough as possible right up front, even down to my personal opinion on the matter.

The economy has been pretty dodgy these last several years. Some of us are fortunate to not need to know first hand how bad it is, due in part to racial and ethnic disparities in the system which help to buffer the majority from feeling too much of it.

Here's a good story on that subject,

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...15.5 percent of African Americans out of work and still looking for a job...

For economists, that number may sound awful, but it’s not surprising. The nation’s overall unemployment rate sits at 8.8 percent and the rate among white Americans is at 7.9 percent...

“Over the course of the recession, the unemployment disparity between college educated blacks and whites actually widened,” says economist Algernon Austin...

It's kinda tough to quote that story, but check out the full link here.

Here's another link following up on Hispanic unemployment if there's anybody out there who likes statistics.

I actually had a pretty kick ass blue color job myself while I was finishing up college that I lost due to the hit that the manufacturing industry took. It bums me out to think that for me, I really didn't care that much about losing that job, but my co-workers (there was a cool German guy, a really nice guy from Somalia that joked with me about his wives, and the factory was just jammed with really cool people who unfortunately for them didn't have a white background) they all got a legitimately raw end of this American deal.

We took out Bin Ladin. No trial, just a pair of bullets, and that night we had kids dancing in the streets. We're obviously not a society that's too overly shy to punish bad people, but it seems that in the broad scheme of things, no one is punishing the wrong doers on wall street. They hurt millions.

We've seen a ripple effect, the damage has gone global. And what the hell has Goldman Sachs done with Greece!?

And as the banks are committing all of these 'non-crimes', Washington is signing their bonus checks!

In my humble opinion, we need something to make us feel whole again. We need to process and dump the proverbial bodies out at see so we can move on as a society. We need to send a message to would-be wrong doers that, "If you fuck us, you will be fucked back" and we generally haven't sent that message. On the contrary we've sent the message, "If you're a bank, you can do whatever you want --just as long as you pay the politicians."

Now on their 4th day, Occupy Wall Street is a call to action promoted by Adbusters Magazine. It's a general call out to all who feel that "corporate greed" is a problem and something should be done about it. The plan is to occupy Wall Street for 2 months, gathering peacefully in Lower Manhattan, setting up tents and enjoying free food and good company, "until we see movements toward real change in our country and the world." The specifics are not yet known, as that during the 2 months, a consensus will be derived from meetings of 2,000+ people in Lower Manhattan who would like to see change and have the voice to propose a solution.

A forum leader here mentioned that he likes it when you bring up Anonymous when they have anything to do with the story, and I have to agree that it's a pretty interesting group and I know a lot of people enjoy hearing about stories that pertain to these "hero-like" individuals. That standing, I will mention that Anonymous is a big supporter of this initiative as well. Here's some Anonymous footage I dug up from google,http://www.youtube.c...h?v=l6jdkpQjueohttp://www.youtube.c...atch?v=Nn18DdJX

I think Occupy WallStreet is a good idea. I mean, we can't just let this stuff go on forever.

I'm debating whether I should actually go or not. It's ridiculously far for me, but I've never done anything cool like join an organized protest or even visit NY. Plus it will be going on for 2 months. I'd probably end up being that guy who gets permanent nerve damage due to aggressive zip tie restraint, lol. I could only stay a few days too, which is ultimately the most discouraging point. Plane tickets cost money, and you can only disappear from work for so long before your clients drop you.

Do you have any thoughts or opinions on any of these issues? Perhaps there are interesting developments that you'd like to share? Or maybe I've left something out that you'd like to contribute to the discussion?

Before I go, here's a quick vid taken today. At first it looks like it's just fun and games, but then you realize the cops have completely cut off circulation to one guys hands after binding him with zip ties. Those are for binding cat 5e cables to joists, not brutalizing passive resistors! One of his hands starts turning colors, it's kinda gross.

Update: While carefully drafting this post, yahoo has been identified as BLOCKING ALL EMAILS CONTAINING THE DOMAIN "www.OccupyWallSt.org"!!! If it contained that string, you could not send it! At this moment, you might not be able to send it depending on your account class! Creepy!

Yahoo make apology. You smile now and read contextually based advertizing.

Replies To: Occupy Wall Street

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Posted 20 September 2011 - 09:26 PM

eh, I thought anonymous started this with their usual "the 5% who go outside will do this"

everybody sounds a little too... whiny, sorry to say. The police are there to keep everything under control, and if your going to get in an officers face and start talking crap, they are going to do what they feel is necessarily to keep you under control. I mean seriously, it's not like cops say "Oh cool, a protest! lets go pick a random stranger minding his own business and handcuff him!". Also, they start complaining that the man is bleeding and needs medical attention because the cop had to drag him away from the hostile crowd. The only thing that man needs is to chill out.

"If you fuck us, you will be fucked back"
Too bad this is hard to do. What are we going to do? Sit on their street and yell at the cops? They sure are going to learn their lesson!

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Posted 20 September 2011 - 09:52 PM

I don't have anything bad to say about the officers in the protest video, I wasn't there, I don't know what happened, but this video below show cops in a different light htan I think you've ever seen them, CreateiveCoding.

Edit: The cops did this because they felt that the blue tarp protecting the protester's camera equipment constituted a "Tent" and needed to be dismantled and the technician disagreed with them. Oops, looks like the guy was wrong

This post has been edited by NotarySojac: 20 September 2011 - 09:57 PM

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Posted 21 September 2011 - 05:25 AM

Even if a change in Wall street and big business is the way to go, it's way past time these people realized that a couple of thousand dirty hippies holding hands in the street isn't going to help anything. If these people really wanted to make a change, they'd try getting educations and jobs and putting themselves in positions where they actually can.
I'm really sick of the bullshit hippie attitude "I'm too lazy to get a real job, but I can justify that by protesting any profit making enterprise I know nothing about in between fish concerts."

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Posted 21 September 2011 - 07:43 AM

POPULAR

I really don't have the time I'd like to take today to dismantle the initial part of the OP but I'm quite tired of people spouting shiat about racial inequality in the United States when it comes to unemployment rates...as though the race of the unemployed worker is the primary cause. It's been demonstrated time and time again that the primary determining factor in employment rates is education. Just a quick Google for "percentage of americans with college degrees by race" brings back a fairly obvious answer to the "racial and ethnic disparities in the system".

Short version: if you don't apply yourself and acquire the skills necessary to get and then retain a job, you'll find unemployment a more common companion than you'd like. This condition persists despite affirmative action, college entry set-asides, federal employment laws that create preferential minority hiring practices and so on.

America is the land of "opportunity"...not of "guaranteed results".

PS: I particularly loved the "free food" mention. "Free" because someone else paid for it and then gave it away which highlights the absolute irony of people sitting in to disrupt working people during the work day because they're not employed nor out looking to acquire employment or the skills to enhance their employability.

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Posted 21 September 2011 - 08:41 AM

Personally I was playing with the notion that the OP was revenge trolling by making a stumbling corpulent post, and burying the "main points" under a ripe mound of ramble-bramble. Having a post with no information is just about as bad as having a post with no focus and a glut of irrelevant tangents with barely connected detail.

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Posted 21 September 2011 - 08:47 AM

Really? Cause it came across like some unholy bastard offspring of hipster-in-a-coffee-shop-spouting-insensate-"downwiththesystem"-drivel meets patchouli-smelling-hippy-circulating-various-conspiracy-theories-invariably-citing-"theMan"-as-the-real-culprit-to-explain-a-pissed-away-youth-giving-way-to-unfulfilling-adulthood...to me anyway.

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Posted 21 September 2011 - 08:50 AM

Where are your statistics on unemployed women? What about unemployed women of color? Unemployed latinas? And what about the unemployment rates among Native Americans and Chinese immigrants of any gender?

You're not telling the whole story here.

Your OP is only semi-coherent with no fluid movement from US unemployment to the Greek economic crisis. If I were an English prof, I would flunk your ass.

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Posted 21 September 2011 - 09:22 AM

POPULAR

Okay I spent my time generating the cliff notes for everyone because I care... Some say I care too much, but that is a different story.

Quote

cliff notes:

- Preface to set up a pre-pitty party!
- The economy's been a bit shaky over the last few years.
- whitey doesn't feel much of the down turned economy.
- I am a common blue collar man that care I lost my job, but I have verbalized my empathy to those who it does impact.
- German guy and Somalia dude don't have a white background
- 'Merica is justice based - proved by Bin Laden's death and subsequent celebration.
- Wallstreet is not being punished for doing what *they* are doing to the economy and the world. (internal link: mortgages, financial trickery, shredding parties)
- Goldman Sachs is the root cause for Greece's issues.
- Washington is equally culipble by giving Wallstreet cash.
- A near call to "Grab your pitch forks and torches we are going to bloody Wallstreet's prissy nose!". *Near*
- Punching Wallstreet will make us move on as a society.
- Hippies setting up camp in front of WallStreet for two months is the actual action.
- Someone claiming to be Anonymous.
- I want to go even if it is a far distance.
- Romanticized organized protest thoughts.
- Personal monetary humps to overcome.
- Cops hurt passive resisters!
- The Man called Yahoo is stopping emails.

A few questions of my own.
What alternative to the current system is suggested?
How does a Hooverville of hippies near Wallstreet incite any required change? Why insinuate that murder of Wallstreet people would solve the problem? (and yes you did. You discuss the swift justice for Bin Laden and "dump the proverbial bodies out at see[sic]" because "We need to send a message to would-be wrong doers that ""If you fuck us, you will be fucked back"".)

I find it interesting that you indicate we need action to "make us feel whole again" and the solution is a hippy camping trip. How about organizing something to actually MAKE us whole again?

Over all it sounds like white guilt is welling up and the only action is essentially inaction by a camp out. On the plus side the 2000+ people not working during this event might lose their job and be picked up by a Hispanic.

If anything I'll keep my eye out in case the Government organizations down in New York attempt to pull a Mubarak... lol